Over 120,000 People Sign Petition Asking EA To Officially Come Out Against SOPA

from the well,-they-should dept

Recently, despite some internet reports to the contrary, we noted that EA had not taken a stance on SOPA -- and it seemed clear the company had no intention to do so. It seems that many EA and video gaming fans don't find that acceptable. They've created an online petition asking EA to actually take a stand on the bills:

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is a tool that protects monopolists and targets sites relied on by small-time businesses, like indie game developers and artists, condoning disproportionate action against these sites for any evidence of copyright infringement from any of their users. If EA wants to protect their monopoly so badly, we need to let them know that they will lose far more business by supporting this bill than by allowing indie developers to operate unimpeded. It is obvious that this bill's primary use is to paint a big red bullseye on the main distributors of indie content, protecting the market shares of big-time businesses like Electronic Arts.

EA is a member of the Entertainment Software Association which supports SOPA. It's time for EA to stand up and publicly oppose SOPA. Don't mess with the internet, EA. You will regret it.

It's too bad they don't mention PIPA too, but... As I write this, there are already about 120,000 signatures, which is pretty impressive. Will EA listen?

It seems likely that the company doesn't want to take a stance either way, but as the petition notes, not saying something about this could be just as bad. And it doesn't even have to be anything big. Take, for example, how NVIDIA just came out against the bill. Despite also being a member of the ESA, NVIDIA notes that it disagrees with ESA and doesn't think this bill is the right approach:

NVIDIA wasn’t consulted by ESA in formulating their position on SOPA. Our position is this: we oppose piracy, as it hurts our game-developer partners. However, we do not support SOPA. We don’t believe it is the right solution to the problem. We remain committed to working to address this problem in a constructive and fair manner.

It seems like EA could do the same thing... assuming that it, too, did not work with ESA on its position. Of course, if it did... well... then things are complicated.